Today we welcome winter. Just a few hours ago it arrived. Its official time of entry has been at 11:44 in the peninsula and it opens with some storms still active with strong winds that cause great waves and intense rains in the Balearic Islands.
The State Meteorological Agency still keeps active the orange alert for rain and wind on the islands of Mallorca and Menorca. The worst is over now, but the rains will still discharge around 100 liters per square meter in just 12 hours. The strong waves will reach waves up to 4 and 5 meters high.
The rest of the peninsula has weaker rainfall and they are no longer on alert. Although overcast skies are expected in the north of Galicia, Cantabrian and eastern Canary Islands.
As for the winter of 2016-2017, what are we going to find? Well, we have several astronomical events that will occur during this winter that will last about 88 days and 23 hours. In our morning sky the planets will predominate Jupiter and Saturn that in the evening will highlight Venus, Mars and Uranus.
As we know, the onset of winter means that today is the shortest day of the year. In Madrid for example, the day will last as long only 9 hours and 17 minutes. If we compare it with the longest day of the year last June, the day lasted 15 hours and 3 minutes.
We will also have eclipses this winter. Between February 10 and 11 there will be an eclipse of the penumbral type of the moon that will be visible in America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If weather conditions such as cloud cover allow us, it may be visible in Spain. This eclipse is about a very rare and special case called "Total gloom." Its name is due to the fact that at its peak the entire lunar disk will be submerged within the gloom.